Nonprofit looks to data analytics to
strengthen fundraising for critically ill kids.

The outlook for Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay Area and its mission
should have been brighter after the hard work of merging three chapters into
one for Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and neighboring communities. The move
tripled the number of families with sick children that the chapter serves and
expanded the geography of potential donors. Yet the nonprofit ended the
first year following the merger $1 million short of fundraising expectations for
contributed income.

“I was terrified that we were in a place where in a couple of years we wouldn’t
be sustainable,” recalled Bri Seoane, who asked to shift leadership roles from
operations and programs to development to help “right the ship.”
She knew the problem ran deeper than one disappointing year. In fact,
contributed annual income had declined over the preceding five years, and
event revenue was also starting to dip, despite the Bay Area chapter’s efforts
to add “new and exciting events” to the calendar.

She also knew the chapter would need to rethink change, and as she led
the development team to adopt Blackbaud solutions—including Blackbaud
Raiser’s Edge NXT® and data insights from Blackbaud Target Analytics®—
she quickly proved that data-driven decision-making could have a powerful
impact. Just two years after the organization’s $1 million shortfall—and less
than a year after the shift to Blackbaud—Ronald McDonald House Charities
Bay Area exceeded fundraising projections for contributed income by
nearly $1 million.

“Our use of Blackbaud Target Analytics and Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT is
making a difference for thousands of families with ill children in the Bay Area,”
Seoane reported. “During the scariest time in these families’ lives, we’ve
continued to serve them, stronger than ever, and expand programs thanks to
our fundraising strength.”

Working Strategically with Blackbaud

While there are more than 375 Ronald McDonald House chapters throughout
the world, each one is independently operated. “About 70% of our funding
comes from individual donors,” Seoane said of the Bay Area chapter’s budget.
“That’s why Blackbaud Target Analytics has been so impactful for us.”
When she took over as vice president of development & strategic
partnerships in 2019, she found the chapter relied heavily on specialized
fundraising consultants, while the small internal team for development was
running a frantic pace that wasn’t yielding the results needed to sustain their
operations, let alone expand. “We were very transaction-based fundraisers
and not relationship-based fundraisers.”

Data-driven by nature, Seoane saw a better way with Blackbaud’s integrated
solutions—one that would allow her team to understand and capture the
full value of each donor relationship so the organization could meet its
fundraising goals. With her leadership, Ronald McDonald House Charities
Bay Area invested in Blackbaud Target Analytics and switched from another
technology provider’s database system to adopt Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge
NXT, the leading solution for fundraising and relationship management.
The switch to Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT came in the early days of the
COVID-19 pandemic and while the database transition took some extra attention by staff on the front end, it ultimately made it easier for staff to
work from home, and gave them the tools needed to pivot quickly and
deploy new strategies with confidence during an uncertain time. While the
pandemic forced the chapter to cancel in-person events, that allowed the
opportunity to evaluate whether some events, like their annual gala, were
worth continuing. “We actually collapsed two event roles and invested in a
data health and strategy role, which is allowing us to leverage analytics in a
more structured and strategy-driven way,” Seoane said.

Sending the Right Message to the Right Prospects

With Blackbaud’s comprehensive data set and analytics tools, including
ResearchPoint™ for prospect research, Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay
Area was able to better identify potential donors who have both the financial
means and a likelihood to give—and tailor messaging to their interests. For
example, someone who supports food insecurity efforts could be encouraged
to back the chapter’s new Feed the Love program, which served 10,500 meals
in 2020 through the children’s hospital in Oakland.

“This approach—using ResearchPoint, thinking about ask amounts, and being
very diligent in this work—yielded a first-time gift of $150,000 this year,”
Seoane said.

The team also shared these insights with board members and encouraged
them to take a more personal role in engaging other donors. In 2020, board
members raised $496,000, which was more than they ever had before.

Altogether, the chapter recruited 14 new major gift donors—after three years
without adding any—and major gift revenue shot up by 300% over 2019.
“Blackbaud Target Analytics told us that we had great people in our database
that we weren’t asking for money,” Seoane said. For the year-end appeal, the development team expanded their mailing list based on Blackbaud’s data insights and recaptured more than 600 donors, with the appeal ultimately netting $832,065—a 44% increase over 2019.

Each victory in 2020 helped the chapter beat expectations for
contributed income by $1 million, despite event cancellations. Moving
forward in 2021, the development team continued to leverage data
insights to shape a more targeted events strategy anchored in a golf
tournament with a priority list of early invitations. They’ve moved
beyond “casting a wide net” with a large annual gala to strategic
outreach to involve the most likely potential donors—which Seoane
anticipates will continue to reap dividends.

Seoane isn’t slowing down, and for anyone who needs convincing, she
repeats what has become a mantra: “More money, more mission, more
families served.